Roy Salvadori – Carroll Shelby's Le Mans Teammate Passes

It's easy to forget that before Carroll Shelby became a successful car builder and race team manager he was a successful sports car racer.

His most famous victory was at Le Mans when he won the famous endurance race in an Aston Martin DBR1. His co-driver was Roy Salvadori, a fairly well known British race driver.

On Sunday Salvadori passed away at the good old age of 90, less than one month after Shelby's death. Aston Martin has just released these delightful original photos of Salvadori and Shelby (far right) in their driver overalls in the pits at Le Mans in 1959 as well as one of Salvadori (center) sitting in a restaurant looking like a proper English gentleman.

Shelby's career has been well documented in the past few weeks so it's time to briefly recap his teammate's racing career. Salvadori made his Formula 1 debut in 1952 driving a privately entered Ferrari 500 in the British GP. He drove several different cars in 50 Grands Prix until 1962. He had two podiums during his career and finished fourth in the World Driver's Championship in 1958 driving a Cooper T45. He retired from motorsport after the 1962 season and went on to run a car dealership before being tempted back to the track in 1966 to manage Cooper Racing's Formula 1 team.

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Salvadori and Shelby drove the Aston Martin DBR1, which was designed by Chief Engineer Ted Cutting who also passed away in March this year. The now iconic race car was an evolution of its predecessor, the DB3S, but following a change in regulations allowing non-road legal cars to race, it became more competitive. Originally fitted in 1956 with a 2.5-liter straight-six engine, by 1959 it featured a 2.9-liter engine producing 250 hp.

Aston Martin's CEO Dr Ulrich Bez said in a statement that both Salvadori and Shelby would forever remain a core part of the marque's heritage following their Le Mans victory 53 years ago. Aston Martin plans to commemorate their achievement next week before the start of this year's race.